The trustees

Jonathan has been Company Secretary & General Counsel at Greggs plc for over 12 years. His responsibilities include Legal & Corporate Governance, Food Safety & Health & Safety, Business Assurance and Risk, Sustainability and External Affairs. His career experience extends to several consumer brands and FMCG manufacturing companies, where his focus has been on international M&A, dispute resolution, and general commercial law, as well as having been Company Secretary of listed companies for almost 25 years. He is Senior Independent Non-Executive Director of Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and, until November 2021, was a trustee and ultimately Chair of the Percy Hedley Foundation in Newcastle. In his “spare” time, he is Company Secretary and Board adviser to Darlington FC.

Stephen brings his vast experience in frontline healthcare to the board. He currently holds the position of National Head of Emergency Preparedness Resilience and Response for NHS England, having previously held similar roles at the Department of Health, NHS North East and the Health Protection Agency.

Stephen has been a registered nurse for more than thirty years, practising in emergency nursing in hospitals in the North East while also gaining experience on the aircraft of the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS).

He has also shared his expertise around the world, having taught in The Gambia, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Trinidad and Tobago and Ireland as well as here in the UK.

In the 2015 New Year Honours list, Stephen was awarded an OBE for Services to Public Health and more specifically for his role during the Ebola outbreak.

Tony was born in Hong Kong and educated at Gresham’s School, Cambridge University and the Royal London Hospital Medical College. His orthopaedic training was based in Leicester and he went on a travelling fellowship in Shock Trauma Center, Baltimore and the Brigham and Women Hospital in Boston, USA.

Tony has been a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Middlesbrough since 1997 and specialises in trauma and knee surgery. He was the Clinical Director for his department for over 10 years and was Secretary and subsequently Chairman of the British Orthopaedic Directors Society (BODS). Tony has been a Clinical Co-ordinator for the National Joint Registry (NJR) , clinical adviser for the Healthcare Commission (now CQC), speciality advisor to National Confidential Enquiry into Peri-Operitive Deaths (NCEPOD), steering committee member of the Falls and Fragility Fractures Audit Project and Honorary Lecturer to Teesside University.  He was elected to the British Orthopaedic Association (BOA) council in 2011-14 and is now serving a second term 2020 -2023. Tony was secretary for British Association for Surgery of the Knee (BASK) 2016-19 and is a member of Beyond Compliance (BC) and Orthopaedic Data Evaluation Panel (ODEP) for knees.

Tony went to Kurdistan with the Newcastle Gateshead Medical Volunteers in 2018 under the leadership of Professor Deiary Kader and had a most enjoyable week working with the dedicated staff in their hospitals. He also volunteered for “Food for Thought” in Darlington but unfortunately the pandemic lockdown made the charity work non-viable.

Tony retired from the NHS in 2019 but is still working in the private sector on a part-time basis. His interests are football, golf, walking, food and gardening.

Claire is a Legal Director for Johnson & Johnson, a global medical technology company.

She has over 30 years of international in-house legal experience in global, innovative and technologically led manufacturing companies.   In the early days of her career, she worked for a global manufacturing company in the petrochemical and speciality chemical sector. She then moved into medical devices, working for companies which design and manufacture innovative and technologically advanced products. She has been part of the senior leadership team of global business units within those companies and ensured that Legal played a valuable part at the heart of the business, helping to deliver their mission of transforming the lives of their patients.

Claire is also a Governor of Teesside University.

Lauren is currently Deputy Director at Newcastle University, responsible for harnessing the power of the University’s 270,000 global alumni and supporters. She has held senior roles across a number of Higher Education institutions and specialises in marketing, communications, business development, and external engagement. This follows a number of years in the commercial sector predominantly in international marketing roles.

Outside of work, Lauren is a competitive Latin American dancer and keen traveller when time permits!

Giles is a highly experienced business leader who brings significant financial experience to the Board of Trustees.  During the last 20 years has held Main Board roles across Plc and Private Equity funded businesses, most notably as Chief Financial Officer at both Eaga Plc and Avant Homes Limited.

He is currently a Strategic Advisor to Terra Firma Capital Partners Limited, a leading European Private Equity Investor. He is a Chartered Accountant and worked at PriceWaterhouseCoopers earlier in his career specialising in M&A and the delivery of due diligence advice to Corporate and Financial clients.

A proud Cumbrian by birth, Giles has lived with his family near the Northumbrian Coast for over 20 years.  He is delighted to be working with GNAAS as they provide critical, life-saving support to both communities.